All News

BRIDGE BLACKS v SINGAPORE. 4.30PM NZ time Friday. on BBO.

Day 3 proved to be generally a good day for our 4 teams. A small loss, a bye and a crushing victory over bottom placed India saw our Mixed Blacks climb to 9^th in the 11-team competition. The Bridge Ferns continued their climb with a small loss and then three wins, also destroying India in the last round of the day. They are one match in to the second of three round robins and are comfortably in 4^th place, but still 27vps behind table topping China.

The Bridge Blacks suffered a small loss but followed up with two narrow but good wins to rise to 3^rd place, 14 and 16vps respectively behind Singapore and Australia.

The Bridge Masters would have been a little disappointed with two small losses at the end of the day after starting with a fine win over runaway leaders, China. They are currently 6^th, 9 vps behind second placed Japan.

           Women                                                                                  Seniors

Japan	29-33	8.72	7th		China	37-26	13.23	4th
China Hong Kong	36-32	8.28	6th		Singapore B	33-18	14.19	3rd
Indonesia	40-12	16.72	6th		Korea	27-37	7.03	3rd
India	95-21	20.00	4th		China Hong Kong A	28-45	5.36	6th

         Open                                                                                     Mixed

China Hong Kong	19-24	8.42	4th		China	30-43	6.28	11th
Japan	33-23	12.97	4th		Bye		12.00	9th
China	36-24	13.48	3rd		India	63-3	20.00	9th

 

That loss to the Bridge Masters was the first of the event for China. The Bridge Masters continued on to beat Singapore though the victory margin could have a lot greater. What’s your choice of lead to 6 after the following sequence?

            West              North            East                South

                                                            4                Pass

            4NT                Pass                5                 Pass

            6                   All Pass

You, South, hold,  QT98              Q9               763              Q754

And while you have your thinking caps on, plan the play in 6 as West after the lead of K:

 

Back to the Bridge Masters. Board 13 in the same match proved an interesting competitive battle. It looks as though if East can show the major suits that East-West will bid on to 5 which would be one or two down depending on how trumps are played:

 

However, Tom Jacob, North, was allowed to play the board in 5, a contract which did not trouble him..+600 while it seems Alan Grant-John Skipper pushed their opponents one level higher and kept the right  card (K) at trick 13 to beat this doubled contract by one trick…13 imps to New Zealand.

In our Open match against Japan, this board cost 7 imps when Ware – Tislevoll conceded 100 (no double) in 6 while Michael Whibley was doubled but sniffed out the Q to be just one down in 5.

It was flat in the Bridge Ferns match, 5x down one with Jane Skipper doing the hard work in finding the Q.  Our Mixed Blacks had their bye in this match.

Back, though, to the lead against 6. If you led anything but a diamond, our Bridge Masters would have gained 13 imps…

 

Unfortunately for the Bridge Masters, South did lead a diamond meaning 13 imps went in the out tray. Some hands are about science. Others, like this one, are less technical. Blame East for having two diamonds rather than three little spades or an extra club!

A Little Bit of Luck

It does help…and successful teams will get some along the way. Picture Jane Skipper when she declared the following as West in 5x. The lead was A…and this is what she saw:

 

One’s thoughts as declarer must be ranging around a certain -200 with it getting worse if she failed to find Q. However, at trick 2, North cashed the A and then played another heart. Declarer just could not go wrong….

 

North’s best exit at trick 2 is either a risky low heart or else a high trump. However, since presumably the bidding and certainly the defence indicated South had 8 spades and then 2 diamonds, the chances of North having the Q were strong. That was 12 imps to the Bridge Ferns when their opponents stayed accurately in part-score. As you can see, accuracy does not always win matches!

Open Successes

The following was really well bid by Michael Whibley and Matthew Brown. They bid to 7 on the following cards: (Dealer East. Nil Vul.)

                        West                          East 

                         Q3                           AKT

                         AKQJ8                    3

                         A3                            98754

                         AQ86                       KT97

 

                     Michael                            Matthew

                                                                 Pass

                       2                                    2   waiting

                       2NT   22-23 balanced       3   both minors

                       4  natural                       4  no shortage  (a small lie! see below)

                       4  cue                           4NT   Keycard

                       5 0/ 3                            5  asking for Q and grand slam try

                       7                                    Pass

Matthew denied a shortage because if he had bid 4 to show his shortage, Michael, with neither top spade would have to sign off in 5. So, the lie was to enable him to key-card after the expected 4cue.

 

There was no problem in the play. They were the only Open pair to reach grand. Their Japanese opponents languished in 3NT.

I am sure Ashley Bach and Michael Cornell would have bid very quickly to 4 on the following East-West cards as their China Hong Kong opponents “dived” in 4: